05 Oct Exclusive interview: Carl Frampton on his memories of the Troubles and how EU border caused tensions

It is a childhood memory that remains every bit as chilling as it was tragic. Carl Frampton says he “saw things you should not see” growing up in north Belfast and, after pausing sombrely for a few seconds before pre-empting the obvious follow-up, he is back reliving the events of Remembrance Sunday, 2001. “It was the worst thing I have seen,” he says. “Glen Branagh. I was good friends with his brother – in the same class at school.

“He was blown up by a pipe bomb; the pipe bomb he was holding. My brother saw it happening. I saw the aftermath. I saw a crowd around him. I always remember seeing his feet sticking out. That was all I could see.” Glen Branagh was 16. Frampton was 14 and, although…